


Punishment

by xLomion



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Afterlife, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Oneshot, Post-Apocalypse, bless tma rp twitter for the inspiration, gay victorians
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-09
Updated: 2020-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-19 01:09:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22636336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xLomion/pseuds/xLomion
Summary: The Apocalypse failed... again and Jonah Magnus now had to pay for what he messed up.Cast into a personalised hell, he found help that he would have never expected.@robbie_smirke @ twitter came up with the concept and I just went wild with the idea.
Relationships: Jonah Magnus/Robert Smirke
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	Punishment

**Author's Note:**

> This ff is not beta-ed and English is not my native language.  
> It would be nice to keep spelling and grammar errors to yourself, Thank you ;)

When Jonah Magnus regained consciousness no words on earth could describe what he feels: Pain, fear, disorientation, confusion and most presently the void in his mind that had been occupied by knowledge and seeing everything. 

He was blind. Not only missing his eyes but also not seeing anything. The realisation crushed him like a wave of fear and desperation. He screamed and couldn’t stop the tears streaming down his face. Were they even tears or were they blood from his empty eye sockets? He didn’t know and he didn’t care at this point. 

Jonah had lost every sense of time in this place so he didn’t know how long he sat there crying, bleeding and screaming. His voice was hoarse in the end and the last tears mixed with blood ran down his cheeks. He finally tried to gather his composure to somehow find out where the hell he was. Putting his hand to the ground Jonah tried to feel his way around. The ground beneath him was rough but straight like a surface carved from stone. There was nothing else around him so he dared to stand up slowly his hands outstretched in hope to find something around that would give him even the slightest hint where he was. Nothing. There was absolutely nothing around. Nothing to feel, except the ground beneath his feet. Nothing to hear but his own steps echoing from non-existing walls. 

He didn’t know what to do but to just start walking. 

_______ 

A scream echoed through the void as an architect wandered through another labyrinth of hallways and tunnels lined with Greek columns. It was a sound he hadn’t heard in decades. Somebody fell into this nightmare realm and he could only think of one person.  
Robert Smirke turned around and walked straight towards a wall to his right where suddenly a portal like archway appeared leading to an open plane, the ground made out of rough but flat stone and the “sky” is covered in eyes, staring so sharply that every glance feels like a knife in your back. 

_______ 

Jonah had been walking for a while now and even though he couldn’t feel anything around him with his hands, he felt a sharp pain like a knife on his back and rips, occasionally on his thighs and shoulders too. But there were neither wounds nor blood where the pain pierced right into him and he felt watched. Not like the times before when his patron was the Beholding and it felt good. No, now it feels like being judged for his failure and feeling the pain he had caused. It was harder to move with the pain everywhere on his body but he hoped to find something to shelter him from these sharp phantom pains. 

When he first heard the steps that weren’t his own Jonah was wondering if he was now hallucinating so he kept walking until the other steps came so close that whoever they belonged to, must now stand right in front of him and Jonah was too afraid to just take one more step and stopped. Not knowing anything and now this random sound that wasn’t from himself made his legs shake so hard that he could barely stand. 

“I thought I heard your voice. And here you stand. I already wondered when you would be dropped in here.” 

Jonah knew that voice but he hadn’t heard it for over a century. If this wasn’t an illusion, he was even more afraid now. This voice reminded him of his failures more than anything else. It couldn’t be. He raised his still hoarse voice: “Who are you? If you’re even real. This can’t be true. This can’t-” Jonah’s voice broke. 

“Jonah, this isn’t an illusion or a trick of your mind, you are just a as lost here as any of us. This is our punishment.” Robert stood right in front of Jonah, tall and with posture, like he had in his lifetimes. But Jonah couldn’t see anything and started to tremble completely. “Our punishment? This means I, I- …. I failed. And you are here to remind me of it.” He fell to his knees, not being able to stand a second longer. Robert couldn’t help but sigh. Jonah was even in worse shape than he had thought. He kneeled down beside the mess that was Jonah Magnus. 

“Let me explain this to you Jonah: This is basically a punishment for failed avatars and the ones touched by one of the entities that couldn’t escape them. We are punished with what we did to our victims and those who had to suffer under the entities we were involved with.” He gave Jonah some time to process the new information. The other was quiet, silently listening to the explanation and trying to understand which was such a different sensation than it used to be with the Eye in his mind. “I see.... well, I don’t but I think I can get a grasp of the concept. So,… this is the End for us?” - “Kind of, but I had enough time to figure things out here. We should get you somewhere without those piercing glances around. I’m sure they hurt you quite a lot.” 

Robert reached for Jonah’s hand but the other flinched away in fear. “Jonah, it is really me. I’m just as stuck here as you. Let me help you.” Jonah though was shivering from fear and more tears mixed with dried blood again. “Why are you helping me after everything I’ve done to you?” - “Because we are in this together and I somehow never lost faith in you completely.” Robert tried again to take the other’s hand, this time slower and more carefully and Jonah let him, being overwhelmed by the feeling of someone else again and it felt just like he remembered. He wanted to cling to Robert’s hand and never let go again. 

“Can you walk again or do you need more time?”, Robert asked calmly. Jonah tried to lift himself again only to feel his legs giving in again. So, he shook his head defeated. Robert reached with his free hand for Jonah’s face but stopped, remembering the last reaction to his touch. He decided to better announce his action. “I would like to clean your face a bit. You look like hell. Please don’t get frightened.” Jonah nodded and his body was tense in anticipation of the coming touch. 

Really carefully Robert took off his cravat and wiped dried blood and tears from the other’s face. He felt Jonah’s tension or hurt in the pressure his former friend almost clenched to the architect’s hand. When Robert was finished cleaning Jonah’s face, he tore off a piece of his vest and put it over Jonah’s still slightly bleeding eye sockets. “Here almost as fancy as 200 years ago.” Robert smiled slightly but realized that Jonah couldn’t see it and was clinging to the fabric of his pants since the architect needed both of his hands to tie the fabric over the other’s eyes. “Th-thank you, Robert.” Jonah whispered the best he could after he was able to hold onto to the architect’s hand again. 

After this break Jonah was able to get up and walk again but he didn’t let go of Robert’s hand, no matter if he stumbled or couldn’t walk straight, he wouldn’t let go.  
Now that he actually felt something again another sense returned to him. He could smell something he almost forgot over the decades. Just Robert’s scent on this piece of fabric over his eyes. Jonah squeezed the other’s hand a bit. Robert didn’t know why the other did this but he felt that it wasn’t out of fear or pain this time. 

Robert lead Jonah through another of those archways back into a maze of tunnels, his own personal punishment. “The Eyes won’t hurt you here so you can relax a bit, Jonah.” 

Done as he is told Jonah relaxed after a while and after assuring that those sudden piercing pains won’t suddenly return. He also trusted his voice enough to speak: “Robert, where were we and where are we now?” He still hadn’t let go of the architect’s hand and tried to ‘look’ in his direction or at least where Jonah though the other would be. 

“This was your punishment like I said but it was worse than what I have seen from others who had been associated with the Beholding. Do you want me to describe what it looked like?” - “Yes please, and maybe also where we are now too. Our voiced sound differently here.” And so, Robert began to explain: “You were on an endless plane and everything, so basically the whole sky was covered in eyes, there glances hurt when they met you and because you are blind now you couldn’t even see them. You don’t know things. This is your punishment. We are now in a maze made out of tunnels, similar to the ones I built under London but they lead nowhere. It’s almost claustrophobic. Because I’m an architect I can somehow summon archways to travel between the different hells, doesn’t really make it better but it’s helpful sometimes. Only make the situation more hopeless.” 

Jonah fell silent after the explanation and his blind gaze met the ground in guilt. “I didn’t want this for you to end like this. I wanted the world for us. And now we are both trapped in here and I can’t even see anything. Why are you helping me, Robert?” The architect sighed and came slowly closer to Jonah holding both of his hand in his own. “Jonah, I told you, that I still believed in you and I chose to be alone here until I heard you. If I had to spend eternity with someone trapped in a hell hole like this it would be you, Jonah. Now you remind me more than ever of who you were before the whole Dread Power affair. You are not what the Eye made you to. Even without your eyes you are still Jonah Magnus.” 

In the end Jonah was almost crying again. But only almost because he didn’t want to ruin the makeshift blindfold, he got from Robert. Every word he wanted to say was stuck in his throat and his hands trembled again.  
Not a single sentence was needed because Robert knew what Jonah would say and so he thought action was better than words and so he slowly let go of Jonah’s hands and let his own travel over the other’s arms up to his shoulders, so Jonah would still feel his presence. Finally, Robert pulled his friend in an embrace that was more than overdue for both of them and after a moment of realization Jonah returned the gesture, clinging to the fabric of the architect’s jacket for dear life and hid his face at the curve of Robert’s neck, releasing the tears again. 

They stood together like this for however long it took for them to find themselves again.  
After he stopped crying, Jonah apologized for just as long until Robert told him to shut up but kept him close in his arms like a fragile antiquity that he would protect from every further damage.  
“I missed you, too, Jonah.” He whispered softly and placed a kiss on the other’s forehead. 

If they had to spend eternity in this world of chaos, they would spend it together.


End file.
